Generally
It is a problem in the field of product creation, product distribution, and/or product consumption to immutably author, maintain, and distribute intangible Informational Objects that identify a particular physical product or processed product as it progresses through an ownership segmented commercial supply, distribution, and consumption chain. The problem is further exemplified by the need for each Owner who obtains possession of a physical product or processed product in the chain to author Informational Objects that can be used to identify, characterize, and authenticate the product. It is a further problem to authenticate Informational Objects containing immutable data, and to update the Informational Object to provide data regarding the history of the physical or processed product within the ownership segmented commercial supply, distribution, and consumption chain. It is a further problem to employ the Informational Objects for tracking a physical or processed product to which the Informational Object has reference both up and down an ownership segmented commercial supply, distribution, and consumption chain. It is a further problem for the Owner of a physical or processed product to be empowered with sufficient ownership, authority, and control over an authored Informational Object to enable the Informational Object to become its own distinct commodity separate and apart from the commodity of the physical or processed product to which the Informational Object has reference. It is a further problem to provide a globally accessible marketplace for commercial activity whereby the authored Informational Objects having reference to a physical or processed product may be advertised, offered, purchased, and sold between and among the Owners and Consumers of the physical or processed products.
An example of the need for Informational Objects is the ownership segmented commercial supply, distribution, and consumption chain of the beef livestock industry. Authenticated Informational Objects are needed in this industry to track animals and their products from genetic selection and birth to consumption for compliance with appropriate government regulations and/or for commercial reasons. In order to describe the present Common Point Authoring system, the beef livestock industry's commercial supply, distribution, and consumption chain, therefore, is used as a practical example that illustrates the capabilities and operation of the present Common Point Authoring system.
Beef Livestock Industry
Historically, the beef livestock industry has operated under an ownership segmented structure which is based on separate production and distribution sectors. While production segments may overlap within one business enterprise, beef livestock industry supply and distribution segments (Livestock Breeder, Livestock Producer, Livestock Processor, Distributor, Retailer) have traditionally been independent of one another, which is the result of specific, highly specialized production practices and economic competition.
The independence and segmented ownership of each segment has and does cause antagonisms within the beef livestock industry supply and distribution chain. Each independent segment tends only to do the minimal practices and management techniques necessary for that segment because it is oftentimes felt by the Owners within each segment that there is no economic benefit to do otherwise. In addition, information is rarely passed up or down the supply and distribution chain by an Owner within a segment to an Owner in another segment for fear of putting one Owner at an economically competitive disadvantage to another.
The result of the beef livestock industry's segmented and antagonistic supply and distribution chain is variable product quality that often fails to realize the primary goal of the beef livestock industry, which is to produce a quality product at a profit. As a result, the beef livestock industry's supply and distribution chain has traditionally produced and distributed beef as a generic product to Consumers devoid of information about the source of the product or the processes and means used for producing, processing, and distributing the product.
Changes in the beef livestock industry have focused attention on the goal of producing quality beef. However, the technology for dispelling the economic antagonisms among and between the disparate Owners and Consumers along the supply, distribution, and consumption chain has been unavailable. While Consumers have indicated that they want a safe, convenient, and consistent quality product, the ability of Consumers to get their message back to Livestock Breeders, Livestock Producers, Livestock Processors, Distributors, and Retailers is muted by the inefficiencies in information flow that continue within the beef livestock industry's supply, distribution, and consumption chain.
The effect of the inefficiencies in information flow among the segments of the beef industry's supply, distribution, and consumption chain has been noted by the United States Department of Agriculture, which has found that an epidemiologist doing a traceback search on diseased cattle today requires anywhere from two days to twelve weeks, and even then the chances of a successful traceback are far from certain. While animal identification and tracking does not insure an animal's health or prevent introduction of animal diseases, the ability to quickly track animals can mitigate the effects of virulent diseases by accelerating the response time. The National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) organized the National Food Animal Identification Task force in April 2002 to develop a national plan covering animals from birth to harvest. According to this task force, maintaining the health of the United States herd is the most urgent issue and, therefore, is the most significant focus of the National Identification Work Plan. The long-term objective is to establish an animal identification and information system that has the capability to identify all premises that had direct contact with a foreign animal disease within 48 hours after discovery. The key elements include a uniform premises identification system and a uniform, nationally recognizable, numbering system for individual animals. These objectives have been continued in the successor United States Animal Identification Plan issued in September 2003. A challenge to the success of the plan is the broad distribution of a national livestock identification system to, and usage by, a critical mass of Livestock Breeders, Livestock Producers, and Livestock Processors.
Although there are a number of vertically coordinated or vertically integrated systems in existence for identification, data management, and traceability, it is a problem in the beef livestock industry's supply, distribution, and consumption chain that there is no globally accessible “umbrella” system available to any Owner of an animal or its distributed products, or any Consumer of a distributed product, that uniquely identifies and authenticates data objects, having reference to uniquely identified animals and their products, in the hands of such Owners or Consumers. It is a further problem that no umbrella systems exist to provide efficient interconnectivity among such Owners and Consumers as the animals are transferred from Owner to Owner, from birth to harvest, and then distributed to the Consumer.
It is a problem within the beef industry's supply, distribution, and consumption chain that there is no globally accessible system for providing standards of compatibility and information flow between existing systems and a means for reliably capturing the identity and history of movement of animals. Furthermore, the lack of information flow is not solvable without technologically addressing the issue of data ownership and control over Informational Objects. Ownership and control over Informational Objects is crucial within the beef livestock industry's supply, distribution, and consumption chain. For example, even with a focus within the United States Animal Identification Plan described above, upon the best available means for standardizing source information and centralizing its collection, without solving the issue of ownership and control of data as an incentive against low or absent effort, the result of the United States Animal Identification Plan may yet be distorted, missing, or unusable data.
Presently, there is no globally accessible, centralized system in which Owners of animals or animal products, or Consumers of animal products, may uniquely identify and authenticate, track, own and control, advertise, sell, and/or purchase Informational Objects having reference to animals and their products within the beef livestock industry's supply, distribution, and consumption chain. Thus, there is a need to provide a globally accessible system to the Owners and Consumers found within the beef livestock industry's supply, distribution, and consumption chain as a marketplace in which uniquely-identified, immutable data about animals and their animal products may be authored as an Informational Object, and such objects may be advertised, sold, purchased, and exchanged as a new, distinct commodity separate and apart from the physical commodity to which it has unique reference. The beef livestock industry is illustrative of the nature of this problem and is used as an example for the purpose of illustrating the operation of the present Common Point Authoring system but is not intended to limit the scope of the described system. The Common Point Authoring system may have application to any industry where information having reference to a physical or processed product has need to be authored, uniquely identified, authenticated, tracked, Owner controlled, advertised, sold, and/or purchased for compliance with governmental regulations and/or for commercial reasons.